A stealth action miniatures board game for 1-4 players. Designed by David Thompson and Roger Tankersley.
Hi folks,
Just a reminder that we've got a full stream of the solo mode tonight at 6pm BST! Designer Dávid Turczi will be joining us to discuss the design and give helpful tactical pointers.
The video will streamed directly below, and a recording will be added in the next day or two.
Hi folks,
I wanted to give some insight into how shooting works in Sniper Elite. This post might be a little more text-heavy than the others, but I thought you'd appreciate an idea of the depth of tactics involved.
Sniping is about skill and patience, but it's also about pushing your luck. It's not always possible to wait for the perfect, risk-less shot. In the video game and in the board game, sniping is an act of deciding how much risk you're willing to take with each shot.
Each time the sniper wants to take a shot, there are two numbers that matter: the distance to their target (which they keep secret), and the number of tokens they are going to draw (which they tell the other players). The distance to target is super simple: it's the number of places from Karl to the target, not including the space Karl is in. The other number has to be at least that many, but could be much higher. For example, if the target was four spaces away, the sniper could draw four, or six, or even ten tokens! There are three obvious outcomes:
In that case drawing four is a bad idea - it has a very small chance of making enough noise to reveal your position, but almost no chance to hit. Drawing ten is also a bad idea, as it's a near-guaranteed misfire. The numbers between that are more interesting though. Drawing six has decent odds of hitting, but drawing seven would be better. You'll have to find your own balance of risk between a successful shot and a revealed position, knowing that it's possible for both to happen in a single shot!
There's more to it than just that though for one simple reason - everyone can see what the sniper draws from their bag. Let's say Karl is two spaces from a target. Karl's player draws four, and ends up with two hits, a recoil and a noise. Great, a hit and no revealed position. But the defenders know Karl can't have been more than two spaces away from the dead soldier. This is a crucial bit of information, and a clever defender will be able to combine it with theories about the direction Karl is moving in to effectively box him in. So do you draw more to throw them off? Move before you shoot so you need fewer hit tokens, with the risk of not being able to run if you are revealed? Wait and see if the soldier moves on, while watching the round counter tick down?
Every player can affect the composition of the sniper's shot bag. The sniper starts the game with their shot bag loaded with 6 hit tokens, 3 recoil tokens and 2 noise tokens (this can change when using the allies expansion, but that's the default composition). This means you've got a slightly better than 50% chance to draw a hit token with a single draw, and pretty good odds of drawing two hits if you pull three tokens. But kill a soldier and you add a hit token to your bag, improving your odds. Kill an officer and you add a noise cancellation token lowering your risk. With every enemy you take out, panic sets in and your shots become easier.
The defenders can push back, adding noise tokens to the sniper's bag when they're spotted, increasing the risk of every shot. This small element of bag building and bag sabotage colours the game, allowing for run-and-gun style in key moments to keep hope alive.
The defending sniper specialist officer will even use the sniper's own shot bag against them, drawing up to seven tokens from their bag to make an attack from a distance. While the specialist abilities can only be used twice per game, placing a defending sniper in a key position is often enough of a deterrent to cover key roadways, allowing your other units to move more aggressively.
As you can see there's lots to think about. It's up to you to make every shot count.
Hi everyone,
I promised an overview of the Allies today, but my laptop has lead me astray so that will have to wait one day more. In the meantime though:
The defending sniper specialist officer allows the defending soldiers to use Karl's own shot bag against him, taking shots from the other side of the board. The specialist officer can target a space and shoot, drawing tokens just as the sniper player would.
The mere presence of this specialist will force the sniper player to rethink their tactics on the fly.
This is a big milestone, and an equally big stretch goal - an entirely new map! Target the Heavy Water Facility to deal a fatal blow to the Axis atomic capabilities. This new map comes with a board, a second dry-erase hidden board, objective cards and solo cards to massively upgrade the Eagle's Nest expansion. Check out some of the artwork below, and help spread the word!
Hi folks,
Let us introduce the Kennel Master!
This specialist is unique in that he comes with two additional miniatures - German Shepherds. The Kennel Master can leave his dogs permanently in certain areas of the board, allowing him to monitor them for sniper movement from afar!
In celebration of funding within 24 hours, the Kennel Master card will be added to every copy of the game, and the three minis will be added added to the deluxe upgrade kit.
Don't forget to join us live on Twitch for our video game devs versus board game devs stream at 6!
Hi folks,
It's been a huge 24 hours for us and I wanted to thank you all for your feedback and support. We've heard the call that you'd love more detail on the specifics of the project, which we'll be updating over the coming days. Expect a detailed breakdown of the contents, mechanics and modes to showcase everything that makes the game great.
We've got more announcements for later today, but for now I wanted to announce two live streams of the board game on our Twitch channel!
You can find them here: https://www.twitch.tv/rebellion_official
Hope to see you there!